Pro Football Talk announced that the audio from the viral moment that saw Brady jawing with Mathieu after the third touchdown by the Buccaneers will not be released by NFL Films. A source told the website that these trash-talk interactions among players are generally not released by NFL Films.
And shortly after the 31-9 victory of the Buccaneers over the Leaders, the tale would probably have petered out, but Mathieu added spice to the already curious moment when he tweeted about it before quickly deleting it.
Mathieu wrote after the game, “He called me something that I won’t repeat, but sure, I’ll let all the media throw me under the bus as if I did something or said something to him.”
The cryptic post by Mathieu led to speculation that Brady hurled a racial slur in the direction of Mathieu. Irvin, who has access to on-field audio since he works on “Inside The NFL” on Showtime but is forbidden to share specifics, says that Brady did not say anything that might be deemed racially insensitive.
“I didn’t like that Tyrann Mathieu put that out like that, the way he put it out, honestly,” Irvin told Eisen. “Because, I go, ‘Come on now.’ It makes it sound as if — it makes people want to know, ‘What’d he say? We’re curious.’ As if he said the N-word, and he did not. Tom did not. So, you know, I didn’t even like that even looming over this situation. So that’s why I think we should clean that up somewhere, somehow. That’s what I’m saying. He didn’t say that.”
Mathieu refused to provide information about the trash-talking incident during his post-game media availability, but told reporters he didn’t think it influenced how he played.
“I thought I played as hard as I can today,” said Mathieu (via ProFootballTalk). “Listen, Tom Brady’s a great quarterback. I never really saw that side of Tom Brady, to be honest. But whatever. No comment. It’s over with. I’m done with it.”
Brady did not discuss the dispute publicly, but, according to ESPN’s Jenna Laine, he wrote an apology to Mathieu after the game. Brady allegedly told Mathieu that he saw him as a “class act” and a “great leader.”
